The Regency
by Lord-Velocinyx
Summary: Zeus mysteriously disappears from Olympus, leaving its gates shut, keeping outsiders out and its residents captive, among which is Annabeth. The gods prepare to fight for the title of "King of the Gods", unaware of another power stirring. Mild Percabeth
1. A Solemn Vision

**The Regency**

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><p><em>Chapter I - A Solemn Vision<em>

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><p>Even before his dream, Percy knew that something was wrong in Olympus. The weather around Manhattan had been stormy the entire week, even in late spring, yet thunder and lightning never visited. But the most telltale sign was that the gates to Olympus were closed…and Annabeth was locked in with the gods. Even though he was glad for Annabeth, he had been disappointed that her job as Olympus's architect would keep her within its vicinity for the majority of her time.<p>

He remembered how Annabeth had told him about how time consuming the job was.

"The gods are so demanding. They almost act like children. Oh no, Artemis wants another statue of a man getting mauled. The glass is scratched in my sun room. I want my personal space observatory," she had said, listing just a few of the complaints.

And then, there was his dream.

For the entire year round, no dreams plagued his nights, and for a second, Percy had thought that things had finally settled down in his life. No more gods trying to kill him. No more world needing saving. No more incidents that would send the country in a nation wide manhunt…again.

But the Fates just loved to prove him wrong. The dream had started simple enough; he was on Olympus, the city of the gods. It was still patchy, like a half woven quilt, and the destruction brought by the Titan War was still prominent. The temple of Aphrodite still looked like Zeus's Fist (or the Poop Pile). The statue of Artemis still resembled a half eaten jackalope. But these pockets of destruction were relatively hidden behind the new constructs.

Percy was amazed by how fast Olympus had been rebuilt. When he was last there, the place had looked like a third grader's LEGOs after being stopped on by a very angry mom. Now wide avenues led from all corners of the city to the center, where the Olympian's throne room was to be. Percy counted fourteen avenues, stretching down so far that it looked like they went on forever. They all converged in the center, like a giant target. Twelve avenues were dedicated to the Olympian gods, one for each, while the last two were for the minor gods and goddesses. Each avenue had their own personal touch to it; Artemis's looked more like a hunting ground, while Aphrodite's looked like a busy street with boutiques and shops along the entire way. He remembered faintly that Annabeth had told him that she modeled the new road system after Paris, which followed a similar design.

"Percy!" a voice whispered. He whirled around to see Annabeth, hiding behind a statue of Athena. A million questions burst into his mind but before he could ask any Annabeth pulled him behind the statue and covered his mouth. "Not now Percy. I don't know how long this connection can last but it's urgent."

Percy gently took off her hand from his mouth. "What's going on? Why's Olympus closed and what's with the scary weather?"

"I can't tell you," she said. He noted that she looked troubled, and had dark circles under her eyes. "Even making contact with you is touchy. You have to promise that you don't tell anyone of this dream. Not until you've told Chiron. He'd know what to do."

"But-"

"Promise me," Annabeth said, "please."

Percy didn't know what persuaded him; her anguished look or that fact that it was _Annabeth_. If she was as worried as she looked, then something must be wrong.

"I promise. But now will you tell me what's going on?"

"I'm not completely sure," she admitted. "I've only heard the rumors among the minor gods. One thing is for sure though. The gods are fighting. Hera and Zeus are no where to be seen. With them gone, there's a power vacuum. And then there are whispers of other gods. Entire new pantheons."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa slow down. What's a pantheon? Isn't that like a temple in Rome or something?"

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "No - well technically yes but that's not what I'm talking about." Her voiced was hushed and hurried, and her stormy eyes flicked around, as if she were doing something illegal. "A pantheon is a collection of gods specific to a religion. Like the Egyptian pantheon or Celtic pantheon."

Thunder rumbled in the distance, and Percy could almost swear she heard the sounds of battle. For a second, Annabeth's figure flickered, like a bad radio connection.

"I can't keep this connection any longer. Aphrodite's gonna kill me." She mumbled the last part under his breath.

Percy's eyes shot straight open. "Wait, _Aphrodite _is letting you talk to me? Why her of all the gods?"

Annabeth fidgeted in her spot. "She thinks that it's…cute that I'm trying to contact you." A light blush crept up to her cheeks and she looked down. Percy could feel his cheeks flare as well. Suddenly, Annabeth's figure began to flicker again, starting to become more and more ghostlike. "I'm out of time. I have already said more then I should have. The rest is for you to find out."

Without warning, she stepped out and hugged Percy tightly, whispering in his ear, "Remember the sky." Before he could ask what she meant, her figure evanesced, with the rest of Olympus. The last thing that Percy saw was the avenue of Zeus, still in flames like a war zone.

**Extremely annoyed right now that I had to wait so long to post this! First, I had to wait two hours, no big deal. But then, after the two hours were over, it said I had to wait another two days! _**

**Anyways, I know this is kinda short but I promise, the next chapter will be longer. (1,500 words+?)**

**This is my first fanfic so be nice plz!  
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	2. When Harpies Attack

**The Regency**_  
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><p><em>Chapter II - When Harpies Attack<em>

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><p>Percy had little hesitation when he took Paul's car keys off the counter top. He had heeded Annabeth's warning to not tell anyone, not even his mom. Besides, she was always cranky in the early morning. He had just woken up, the memories of Olympus still lingering in his mind. As he crept out the door, his subconscious once again gleaned upon Annabeth. He hadn't seen her since the last winter solstice meeting on Olympus. He still had a bunch of questions to ask, but all he got was more unanswered questions and a laconic goodbye. What did she mean by, "Remember the sky"? He contemplated this as he unlocked the car and hopped into the driver's seat.<p>

As soon as he was out of the apartment, he stopped worrying about his parents finding out. New York after all, never slept. The ignition of the car blended in with the other sounds that defined the bustling city. Unfortunately, as soon as he got out of the city and into the more suburban areas, things started going down hill.

Plans rarely worked out for Percy. Perhaps that's why he left the planning to Annabeth while he just went by his minute decisions. But when a trio of harpies decided to drop by for a ride by clawing off the roof of the car and screaming in his face, he really wished he'd thought further ahead then this. His hand instantly went to his pocket, his hand brushing the familiar grip of the pen form of Riptide. He let go of the wheel to uncap his pen. Riptide instantaneously transformed - but not to the form Percy had expected.

Instead of the usual yard long blade of gleaming celestial bronze, it was substantially shorter and lighter, like the training swords for the younger campers. The hilt was made a black material that reminded Percy of the Minotaur horn, with ridges for a solid finger grip. Twin snakes slithered from the hilt past a simple crossed hand guard and melded into the blade, which was made of a silvery metal, to Percy's dismay. Anything but celestial bronze would be useless against monsters such as the harpies that were clawing at the windshield.

In his hand, it felt as balanced as the old sword had been, as if it had been crafted just for himself. The grip fit his fingers perfectly like pieces of a puzzle. But he did not have time to awe at the new weapon. A harpy had used its claws and taken the wheel. Percy experimentally slashed at the harpy's feet. It cried out in pain and released the wheel, sending the car into a spiral off the road. Percy felt the force push him back into his seat, wishing he had actually buckled his seat belt.

The other two hissed at him angrily, but approached with a new sense of cautiousness. The pair took Percy by the arm, one on each and lifted him straight out of the car, like a falcon plucking its prey from the ground. Percy flailed his arms around. Whether it was because of him struggling or his weight, the harpies dropped him, and he landed butt first in the shotgun seat. The car was still doing three sixties like an out of control skater.

He looked up into the dawning sky, rivers of adrenaline pumping through his veins. The two silhouettes still hung in the air, cawing at him mockingly. The first tried to knock the sword out of his hand with its claws but he deflected it with the hand guard. He quickly jabbed at where the second one had been. The first few times, he had hit the air but the last two hits had entered the soft flesh of a living being. A shower of golden sands, the only evidence that a monster had been present before, temporarily blinded him. The last took advantage of this and dived. At the last second, Percy dove into the driver's seat just as the harpy shot past him, its talons stuck in the hood of the car. It turned to him, a wild look in its eyes. But no amount of cawing or struggling could get it free.

"_We will not allow you to usurp our queen!" _it shrieked. Before Percy could ask what it meant, the car hit a rock, smashing the harpy in between. It quickly dissipated, leaving nothing but a totaled car and a disheveled boy clutching a sword. He searched his pocket for the cap of Riptide before looking at his sword and screamed. The two snakes on the hilt had coiled and tangled themselves onto Percy's sword arm. He flailed around for a while, like a chicken on steroids, but to no avail. He finally stopped struggling. Maybe he could talk to them.

'_George and Martha?'_

'_What? No, of course not. People are always mixing us up with those two excuses for snakes.' _The voice was masculine, but composed mostly of almost inaudible hissing.

'_Shut up, Seneca. You drove that other guy, what's his name, Leonardo? You drove the guy mad! And then nobody dared pick up this sword for the next six centuries!' _This voice was more feminine, bud still held the embodiment of a snake. Compared to George and Martha, these two hissed at least ten times more.

'_Well, Mrs. Corn, it's not _my_ fault that he was a pacifist. I mean, who came up with the concept of peace?' _Seneca haughtily replied._  
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'_You imbecile, _you _were a pacifist when we were still human!'  
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'_Then I must be the biggest idiot of the millennium.'_

'_Exactly! About time you realized.'_

The two were just as insufferable as George and Martha, and twice as annoying.

'_Shut up, both of you! And get off my hand!'_

Maybe he let too much anger escape into his voice (thought?), but they bickered more then the gods did when they discovered Antarctica (No, it's my land! I saw it first!). The two snakes disappeared and Riptide transformed back into a pen.

Percy groaned. While Camp Half-Blood was only a few more miles away, it felt like it was as far off as the concept of a normal life.

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><p>Walking all the way to camp was a less then pleasant experience. He reminded himself to suggest to Chiron to install an escalator or something up the hill as he panted his way across the Golden Fleece with its dragon protector curled around it. He stopped and sat down near the fleece, trying to catch his breath. The dragon simply opened an eye, glaring at him for waking it before falling back to sleep. The healing powers of the fleece instantly reinvigorated him and he was able to run to the Big House, ignoring the temptation to go to his cabin and sleep, like what all other normal people should be doing.<p>

Argus let him see Chiron without a word and within minutes, Percy was regurgitating all the events that had happened to a very sleepy centaur. He left out the part on Aphrodite.

"I see…" said the centaur, as his hand stroked through his beard. He was still in his pajamas, and had a yellow polka-dotted nightcap on. His torso was covered by a shirt with a sleeping cow. It was quite hilarious and Percy would've laughed, if the situation wasn't so serious.

Percy looked at his old mentor with expectant eyes. "While the harpy attack is excusable since you _are_ a powerful half-blood, what they said is slightly worrying. As for Riptide's transformation…may I see it?"

Percy simply nodded and gingerly uncapped the pen. He still hoped that what he had seen was just a hallucination, but it still transformed into the sword he had used against the harpies. The blade glimmered dangerously in the moonlight. As soon as he uncapped the pen, the same hissing voices infiltrated his head again.

'_Hey, master doesn't hate us! I told you Cornelia.'_

'_Shut up. You've driven off nearly every single patron so why wouldn't I expect you to drive off this one as well?'_

"Will you two shut up? I swear, you guys argue as much as Apollo and Artemis do!" Percy yelled. Chiron looked at him weirdly, and even Argus let a hand peek over the opened door to see what was going on. Percy sighed and explained to Chiron about the two voices, with both of them giving suggestions the entire way.

'_You should've said that I am awesome!'_

Percy simply capped Riptide in response.

Chiron was silent for a moment, as if contemplating how much he should tell. He finally spoke, "What you have there…is a Roman gladius. Extremely useful weapon when coupled with a shield. Two feet and eight inches of Imperial steel, with a few drops of golden ichor, forged from the heat of the River Styx. More of a stabbing weapon than slashing, given its length," Chiron recited, as if out of a textbook.

The only words that Percy picked up were Roman gladius. Roman? If that meant what he thought it was… "Will Riptide ever turn back to normal?"

"I'd say that what Riptide is right now is normal. Magical weapons will transform to fit the time period and situation, like Annabeth's invisibility cap. I'm sure that you'll see it's original form…eventually. As for the two snakes, I'm not sure what I can say. Cornelia and Seneca…I'm sure I've heard those names somewhere in history but I'll need their full names to confirm. In the mean time, you will just have to deal with them."

Percy groaned. How on earth did Hermes deal with two bickering snakes in his mind 24/7? "When you mentioned the Roman gladius…I thought only the Greek gods existed."

"In a way, that is true. But as I have said, the gods take many forms. The Roman pantheon is unique in a way that it is fused with the Greek one."

The word pantheon caught a hook in Percy's memory. _A pantheon is a collection of gods specific to a religion._ So did that mean… "What about Olympus?" Percy abruptly asked.

"You shouldn't be so worried about Olympus. Zeus has shut himself in many times before, for many different reasons." As Chiron said this, it looked as if he was trying to convince himself.

Frustration was evident in Percy's expression. "But Annabeth said something was off. And besides, Zeus and Hera aren't even in Olympus!"

"How could she know that? I've already said that the gods take many forms, and not all are understandable to mortals, or even demigods." Chiron yawned, his eyes drooping, but his tone stayed firm.

"Well what about the other gods? She said something about other _pantheons_, oth-"

"Before we go further, tell me this Percy. Are you concerned about this because Zeus and Hera _might_," he emphasized the word, "be missing, or because Annabeth is stuck there? Besides, I'm sure that everything is fine."

The question had taken Percy by surprise. He never actually thought about that, and it befuddled him like the question Aphrodite had asked him all those years ago in the desert. It took him a minute to construct his reply in his mind. "Yes, I'm concerned that Annabeth is stuck there," he started carefully, "but I'm entitled to that concern. She's my girlfriend for gods' sake! But still, if what Annabeth says is true…" He wracked his brain for what else to say that might convince the skeptical centaur. What would Annabeth say if she were in his situation? "Why don't we ask the Oracle? If something is wrong, she should know of all people. And if nothing is wrong, then you'd get the privilege to tell me I told you so."

Percy couldn't help but smirk. If everything "was fine", then there wouldn't be any hurt in visiting the Oracle for a prophecy. He had trapped Chiron, who had thousands of years of experience. Annabeth really was starting to rub off on him.

"Fine," said Chiron reluctantly. "But in the morning. Let's not wake up any more people in this ungodly hour, shall we?" He yawned before trotting away.

How did a centaur sleep anyways? Another question unanswered for another day.

Percy didn't realize how tired he really was. Excitement stimulated him like caffeine did to Grover (and Grover high on caffeine was _not _a pretty sight). The usually short walk to the horseshoe of cabins felt like another endless trek. When he crossed the river, he saw a couple of naiads wave at him, but he was too tired to wave back.

Poseidon's cabin was completely clean, like a new canvas, ready to be painted on, or in his case, dirtied. It was that way at the end of every summer and pretty much stayed the same until Percy moved back in the next year. The fountain had been fixed, and the sound of running water soothed Percy's nerves. A soft mist allowed a rainbow to exist within its domain. Percy wanted to message his mother, to tell her everything was alright. He picked up a golden drachma from the pool.

"O rainbow goddess, please accept this offering." He flipped the coin into the air. The coin however, splashed back into the water, instead of disappearing into thin air. However, Percy could still see the Iris message, waiting in standby. For a second he thought that it had still worked until a robotic voice delivered a message:

"Sorry for this inconvenience. Lady Iris is currently upgrading her network system to 5G. Please refer to Hermes' Delivery Service for message delivering. Again, we are sorry for this inconvenience. Have a good day!" The message melted back into the rainbow. Percy sighed. He climbed into one of the beds and fell asleep. But as usual, the nightmares began as soon as his head hit the pillow.

**The first few chapters are pre-typed so updates will be faster and more consistent. But...if you review I'd be glad to increase my speed.  
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	3. The Moon and the Sun

**The Regency**

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><p><em>Chapter III - The Moon and the Sun<em>

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><p>In the start nothing gave away that his dream would become a nightmare. It was night time and the sky was completely clear, covered by myriads of stars. It was as if a dark piece of velvet encompassed the entire sky, sprinkled with clusters of shining gems. From the lack of light pollution (another concept Percy had learned from Annabeth), Percy guessed they were either within Camp Half-Blood (where pollution didn't exist), or in the middle of no where, though the chances of the latter was close to zero.<p>

There were people everywhere spread across the field of grass. He recognized some of them from camp, but there were a lot of new people. Everyone was expectantly looking at the sky as if Zeus himself would pop out of the stars and start tap dancing. Percy wasn't even aware that Annabeth was snoozing in his arms until she started to stir.

"Is it time yet?" she asked drowsily. For a second, Percy simply stared at her face. Her usually tan skin looked pale in the full moon, her blonde hair slightly messy. Percy thought she outshined any star in the sky. He simply nodded, not quite processing her question. She instantly got up, wiping the drowsiness away from her face. Percy was slightly envious of the sky for stealing away her attention but the emotion subsided after he thought about how stupid the notion was.

He sighed before also turning to the sky. Everyone's eyes seemed to be centered on the full moon. A boy to his left was counting down. But counting down for what?

Percy resigned his attention to the moon. At first he saw nothing special about it (but don't tell Artemis he said that), but eventually his eyes saw that the moon was waning ever so slightly. He caught a flicker of red but dismissed it as a trick of the light.

3...

The moon had shrunk to the size of a half crescent but was rapidly shrinking.

2...

The moon was nothing but an extremely thin sliver of silver light.

1...

The entire shining white disk disappeared. A twinge of disappointment hit Percy. This was what everyone was so hyped up about? Percy's disappointment was brushed away as soon as the moon reappeared, but this time red. It looked as if someone had dripped blood all over the disk, corrupting all the stars near it, causing them to fade.

"A total lunar eclipse," whispered Annabeth. Percy continued to stare at the wine red disk, mesmerized by the sight. In New York, people couldn't see all but the brightest stars, and Percy had never paid any attention to the sky. He had never seen anything like it. It resembled a halo…a crown fit for the devil. Suddenly, the image shattered, as if it had been nothing but a reflection in a mirror. Percy found himself in a forest.

He subconsciously looked up, searching for the moon through the high treetops. It was still stained with the same red, as if glaring. Ahead of him, were a large group of girls all dressed in loose fitting Greek chitons. They were all crowded around something, or someone.

Percy heard a strained gasp, like the sound of a dying animal. "Please don't strain yourself Lady Artemis. Polyxene should soon be back with the nectar and ambrosia." The voice sounded oddly familiar. It was firm and authoritative, with just a hint of arrogance, but an underlay of softness made her voice seemed welcoming. They were all speaking Ancient Greek, which made the situation even stranger.

"Cu…curse him! He…he of al-" The goddess started coughing violently. A rush of worried whispers could be heard from the group.

"Is it Apollo? I swear, the next time we see him-"

"No…it is…is not my brother." The voice was weak, struggling to compose sentences. It was hardly like the independent (and slightly hostile) voice that Percy remembered. "It can only be _him."_ Artemis leaned to the ear of her lieutenant, whispering a name. She gasped.

And Percy gasped as well, his eyes widening. It was Zoë Nightshade. His mind pieced together all the clues. Zoë had lived an extremely long time. The fact that they were speaking Ancient Greek and everyone was dressed like the Greeks just added to the evidence. Percy looked up again, but not at the moon. This time his focus was the stars. Zoë's constellation, the Huntress was no where to be found. Now that he thought of it, the sky was strangely empty. He couldn't make out the belt of Orion, or Scorpio, or Pegasus. A realization surfaced.

He wasn't anywhere near modern times. He was back thousands of years ago. The lunar eclipse must have been hurting Artemis. And from the nervous whispers of the crowd, this was the first. The first lunar eclipse. Annabeth's goodbye greeting on Olympus didn't seem so off handed after all…_Remember the sky._

Was this what she was talking about?

'_Where some people find beauty, another person must sacrifice for it.'_

Percy turned around to find no one. The voice…it was the same hissing voice that he had heard in his head. Seneca, the annoying snake.

'_You feel guilty for thinking that the eclipse is a beauty of Earth. But why let others hamper your pleasure? The goddess suffers, but only because it is natural. Like menstruation.'_

Percy's eyes twitched at the awkward comparison.

'_Remember these words: Where one person makes gains, there is always another who loses something.'_

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><p>Percy wished that he could say he woke up from a peaceful sleep to the sounds of giggling dryads. But noooo. He woke up to the sound of two arguing snakes. In his head.<p>

'_I told you not to go inside his dreams!' _berated Cornelia.

'_But it was so interesting! It's like new gossip! The only gossips we have are from the fifteenth century! Plus that Annabeth girl is really a looker…'_

'_You have absolutely zero chance with her! You're a snake, she's human. You're thousands of years old, she's only a teenager. You're ugly, she's not. You're-'_

'_Shut up. And I'm not ugly. I'm hotter than Apollo!'_

'_Yet you haven't gotten a girl to look at you in the past two millennia.'_

"Will you two just shut up? I thought I turned you into a pen!" Percy crankily said. He buried his head under his pillow and tried to get back to sleep.

'_Well, unfortunately, we still are a pen. If you could just turn us back to a sword…'_

'_Exactly. It's such a shame that swords aren't part of the standard attire anymore. I remember back in the day when everyone carried a sword with them…and if we were lucky, they would even duel!'_

Percy couldn't believe what he was hearing. The two snakes were in his head, and they were _agreeing_. "Look, if you two don't shut up, I'll throw you into the river and you won't have a new master for the next millennia. And by the way, naiads don't exactly like trash in their rivers." Of course, they didn't like the person who _trashed _their rivers either, but he decided not to mention that.

That shut them up. He lazily looked at the clock. It read, "6:36 A.M." in bright, bold green. He sighed. He seemed to be doing a lot of sighing lately, and the thought only made him sigh again. He decided to use the time to take a long, relaxing shower. He had a feeling that he wouldn't be able to do so afterwards for a long time.

The morning was a blur. Iris messaging was still down and Hermes' Delivery Service was a service reserved mostly for the gods, so Percy had no way of telling his mom he was ok. He felt guilty, not just because he left without warning, but because he had destroyed Paul's car. It was bad enough when Blackjack had punched a bunch of dents into the hood. The fact that he had just finished a new paint job for the car didn't make the guilt any easier to swallow.

Percy didn't want to risk any harpy attack with a phone call, especially since every time he drew his sword, the two annoying snakes would begin to bicker again. Besides, most of the campers were out, and the only one who had a cell phone was Clarisse, since Annabeth wasn't here. And the chances of Clarisse letting him borrow her phone were as slim as the chances of Mr. D getting his name right.

Breakfast passed with little incident, the Stolls only played one prank through the entire morning, and the satyrs had overflowed the infirmary from pursuing so many dryads. Nothing out of the ordinary.

Percy had tried to ask Chiron multiple times about when he could ask Rachel for a Prophecy. Five times actually. Eventually, Chiron said that there was going to be a council meeting at lunch to address the new problem, and that he should relax.

He wanted to say that how could he relax while Annabeth was stuck in a city full of gods who's definition of argument meant throwing fireballs at each other, but refrained from doing so. He decided to practice a little sword fighting to calm his nerves.

Unfortunately, instead of turning into a sword this time, Riptide turned into a bow and arrow. The same two snakes were intertwined to form the bow.

'_Why. Aren't. You. A. Sword.'_

'_You see, me and Cornelia-'_

'_Cornelia and I,' _corrected Cornelia.

'_Cornelia and I have been looking through your memories to entertain yourself. And according to this report card, you suck at archery.' _The image of Percy's one year old progress report popped into his head. He grimaced while looking at the column of Cs, though the occasional A (monster destruction) eased him through._  
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'_You've been looking through my memories?'_

'_Yes - I mean no, of course not, he he, silly me, a slip of the tongue!' _said Seneca nervously. _'Well, what else can we do? Your brain is basically an empty husk! That Anna girl is right when she calls you Seaweed Brain!'_

'_Get. Out.'_

'_But-'_

'_OUT!'_

Percy was fuming with anger. But still, all he had in his hands was a bow and a single arrow. It was simple, with no other décor other then the twin snakes. Etched into the side with messy Greek was Πάρις. Paris. _'Great. They didn't even get my name right.'_

Like all the weapons that Riptide had produced so far, it was perfectly balanced, perfectly weighted for Percy. He knocked the arrow and pulled back, aiming at a conveniently placed dummy.

'_A little to the left.'_

He was slightly annoyed that the two had infiltrated his mind so soon but took the advice and aimed once again.

'_Two millimeters up.'_

He once again readjusted, and let the arrow fly.

Thwack! For the first time in his life, the arrow actually hit its target (No, the centaur wasn't his target last time).

'_Nicely done,'_ said Cornelia.

'_Beginner's luck,' _said Seneca with grudging approval.

And he spent the rest of the morning practicing, and for the first time, enjoying archery. The twin pair of snakes made occasional comments (Pull back farther. You're pointing in the wrong direction) but still continued to argue incessantly. Because of that (and not his lack of skill mind you), he never hit another bull's-eye after the first one.

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><p>At lunch, just like Chiron had said, all the cabin counselors were called to a meeting. Percy rushed hurriedly after he had sacrificed his most of his meal to his father and headed off to the meeting, eating the few French fries he had saved. He had once accidentally sacrificed his entire meal to Poseidon. The result? The entire mess hall was flooded with salt water. This time, the bottom of the brazier only gurgled a bit before settling down.<p>

His fingers were red from pulling back the bow string of the bow so many times but he ignored the stinging sensation. His bubbling excitement seemed overwhelmed all the other feelings.

Percy recognized a few of the counselors, but there were also many new ones, such as Talia Reyne, daughter of Astraeus, the titan god of stars and planets. Ever since Percy had demanded the pardon of innocent titans, titan children had become increasingly common.

All the others counselors looked confused as to why there had been a meeting, and terribly hungry. Since they were year-rounders, they hadn't seen the weather hovering above Manhattan.

Luckily, at that moment, Argus came in with a full buffet of food, complete with fresh tin cans for the satyrs. There were two representatives from the Council of the Cloven Elders, and unfortunately, Grover couldn't come since he was still considered a "junior" member. Besides, he was busy at work in China, where the environment was getting worse everyday.

"Silence. Silence, we will have order." Chiron stomped with one of his hooves. The demigods simply stopped talking as loudly, retreating to whispers and shushes. "We are here today to discuss a dire problem." When did "everything's fine" become dire problem? The word 'problem' caused the demigods to fall silent. "Olympus has closed its doors. As some of you may have noticed, your dreams may have stopped occurring. This is only one sign that most gods have been forced to shut themselves in with Olympus."

"Why most?"

"Well, the gods couldn't just let the sun stop rising, or life stop occurring, could they? Then the mortals would think that the world was ending. No, we made that mistake once with the Mayans, and look at the damage it caused. Oh no, the world is ending in 2012. That is why gods such as Apollo, Hermes, Artemis, and a few others have been able to continue their duties, though with limits of course."

Chiron then let Percy explain the rest, and once again, Percy echoed every detail he had told Chiron. He added some extra details about the two snakes and the weapon changing as well, though left out his dream about the lunar eclipse. With his luck, he'd mention the part where he was cuddling with Annabeth and all hell would break loose.

"Wait, Aphrodite let Annabeth speak to you?" Leave it to Aphrodite's kid to have her priorities mixed up. A couple of snickers followed the comment. Ok, maybe he remembered to cut certain parts out, but his brain didn't bother to remind him of that.

"That isn't the important part Drew. My sister, Annabeth is stuck in Olympus. We have to help her!" said Malcolm, the acting counselor of the Athena cabin in Annabeth's absence.

"What is important is that Zeus and Hera are missing. We need a quest!" the Katie of the Demeter cabin said. Nods and murmurs of approval accompanied the statement.

"Are we all in agreement that Percy should lead this quest?" No one objected. Chiron sighed. "Very well," he said, turning to Percy, "Perseus Jackson, do you accept this quest?"

"I accept."

"You shall consult the Oracle then. We will wait for you here." Percy looked at Rachel expectantly as they both exited the room.

"So how does this work?" Percy asked, "Do I just ask a question and green smoke starts pouring out of your eyes?"

"I really don't know. I'm not exactly aware of my surroundings when I'm prophesizing."

"Right. Must be a life scarring experience to see yourself billowing out green smoke."

"Haha, very funny. Just get on with it."

Percy breathed a calming breath. "Rach - Oracle. What is happening on Olympus?" _And what is the meaning of my dreams?_ he added in his mind.

* * *

><p><strong>Cliffhanger! So can anyone guess the prophecy? Review!<strong>


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